The scientists, at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary
Medicine (VMRCVM), engineered a recombinant Newcastle Disease virus (NDV), an avian paramyxovirus, to create a vaccine that holds promise
to protect humans against multiple diseases.

"The Newcastle Disease
virus makes a very good vector for creating human vaccines," says Siba Samal,
the research team leader and associate dean of the VMRCVM at Maryland. "NDV
replicates in species other than poultry, but not enough to cause disease. Also,
there are nine types of paramyxoviruses and NDV is Serotype 1, so we can make
similar vaccine vectors with other avian paramyxovirus types, which can be used
to protect against more than one disease."

Their future research will include a vaccine for the avian
influenza H5N1 and other human viruses for which vaccines are currently not
available.